The Market Report

Brigido's Fresh Market Owner: Mike Fernandez Opened:  2023 under current ownership; 1975 previously Cooperative:  Allegiance Retail Services Location:  25 Village Plaza Way, North Scituate, RI Photographed:  November 19, 2023 It's time for the final Brigido's! We've seen their locations in North Smithfield and Pascoag (plus New Hartford , kind of), but this tour is unique because it's the only one I've been to after the ownership change and subsequent renovation and grand reopening. The store is roughly 23,000 square feet, making it actually the second-largest Brigido's (New Hartford is slightly larger, and the other two are both under 20,000). We enter to the grand aisle on the right side of the store, with produce, deli/bakery, and prepared foods in what appears to be an expansion. Meat and dairy are on the back wall of the wide but shallow store, with frozen foods in the last two aisles on the left. The store started out as a Brigido's IGA back in ...

Brigido's Fresh Market Owner: Mike Fernandez Opened:  2023 under current ownership; 1999 previously Cooperative:  Allegiance Retail Services Location:  900 Victory Hwy, North Smithfield, RI Photographed:  September 4, 2021 It's time for our second Brigido's Fresh Market! Yesterday we had the location in Pascoag , and there are now two other locations in New Hartford, CT and North Scituate, RI (which we'll visit soon). This North Smithfield location was previously an independent called Eddie's Market until Brigido's opened up in 1999, but I don't know any further history beyond that. At 19,000 square feet, it feels much larger than Pascoag but there's only about a 7,000 square foot difference. This store is definitely higher-end, though, with a big focus on the fresh items. There's also plenty of regular groceries, but the perimeter is much more exciting than Pascoag. Like Pascoag, I visited this store back in 2021, before it was sold. These days, i...

Brigido's Fresh Market Owner: Mike Fernandez Opened:  2023 under current ownership; 1978 previously Cooperative:  Allegiance Retail Services Location:  54 Sayles Ave, Pascoag, RI Photographed:  April 16, 2022 Welcome to Pascoag, Rhode Island, a small village that makes up part of the town of Burrillville. In the middle of this village are a few small businesses, and the largest is this Brigido's Fresh Market. Built in 1978 as a Brigido's IGA, the store became independent and C&S-supplied by the time I got here in 2022. Then in early 2023, the store was sold to Mike Fernandez, who also owns two Foodtowns in New York City and the Brigido's (formerly Foodtown) in New Hartford, CT . Brigido's was a longtime Rhode Island chain of three stores, and when Fernandez purchased the three stores, the New Hartford one was switched. These days, Brigido's is the only Rhode Island member of the Allegiance Retail cooperative, which also represents Foodtown, Pathmark, Green ...